From DE 196 06 388 A1 a self-propelled field chopper is known. It has a carrier vehicle that includes a front, when seen in a driving direction, with a header in the form of a mower with a reel to cut the harvested good and guide it, via a delivery mechanism, to an intake unit. The intake unit is also attached on the carrier vehicle. It includes feed rollers and pre-pressing drums. The rollers and drums are arranged in pairs to each other and are rotatingly driven in opposite directions. The intake unit delivers the flow of harvested good to a chopper drum, also provided on the carrier vehicle, to chop the harvested good. Behind the chopper drum, an acceleration drum is arranged. The acceleration drum delivers the shredded chopper good through an ejection channel to enable passage of the harvested good onto a loading vehicle.
The intake unit is arranged in front of the front wheels of the carrier vehicle. It is driven, via drive shafts, which are drivingly connected to a gearbox. The gearbox is also arranged in front of the front wheels. To be able to carry out maintenance work on the chopper drum, the header as well as the intake unit has to be removable. In order to remove the intake unit, the drive shafts, which drivingly connect the gearbox to the intake unit, are decoupled from the intake unit. Thus, the intake unit together with the feed rollers and the pre-pressing drums are removed from the carrier vehicle. This is generally done by pivoting the intake unit on the carrier vehicle. Thus, the intake unit is not completely removed from the carrier vehicle, but laterally pivoted away, to ensure accessibility to the chopper drum. The gearbox that drives the intake unit remains fast on the carrier vehicle and it is not pivoted, as it is not arranged on the intake unit. This is also necessary, as the gearbox is driven by a hydraulic motor that is directly flange-mounted thereto. The hydraulic lines generally cannot carry out a large angular movement of the hydraulic motor together with the gearbox because of their low flexibility.
DE 10 2006 030 971 A1 also illustrates a self-propelled field chopper. The intake unit is arranged between the front wheels of the carrier vehicle. The gearbox that drives the feed rollers and pre-pressing drums is directly connected to the drums. Thus, because of the missing drive shafts, the gearbox is arranged closer to the drums. Thus, the drums and the gearbox can be arranged, space-wise, between the front wheels. The gearbox is, thus, part of the intake unit and is, for maintenance purposes, at least partially removed together with the feed rollers from the carrier vehicle or pivoted thereto. To enable the pivoting or displacing of the gearbox, the gearbox is connected via a drive shaft arrangement to a hydraulic motor. The hydraulic motor is arranged in the rear area of the carrier vehicle. To remove the intake unit, the drive shaft arrangement can be decoupled from the gearbox.